Broker lender results revealed

First National is crediting brokers for its impressive quarter of originations.

“Brokers play a very big role for us; we get all our business from the channel,” Robert Inglis, chief financial officer for First National, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “Mortgage brokers do offer a valuable service by helping clients for free; banks are good too but brokers can just get better rates.”

First National Financial Corporation announced upticks in a number of categories for the quarter ending September 30.

Mortgage originations were up 7% to $5.4 billion in the third quarter, year-over-year.
Revenue was also up 7% to $246.6 million in the third quarter.

The lender reported impressive origination numbers – despite significant drops in Alberta due to oil market volatility and the negative impact it has had on the housing market. This indicates just how busy brokers outside of oil country have been over the past few months.

“Single family mortgage originations of $4.05 billion came within 1% of the record set in last year’s third quarter and surpassed volumes set in the second quarter of this year,” Moray Tawse, executive vice president, said. “We consider this performance to be strong in light of the downturn in the oil sector – which manifested itself in a 17% reduction in single family origination volumes out of our Calgary office compared to last year.”